Page:MacLeod Raine - The Sheriff's Son.djvu/253

 boys won't touch him again, Boots. I've laid the law down. But I can't answer for Tighe. He 'll do him a meanness if he can, and he 'll do it quicker since I 've broken off with him because you helped Dingwell and Beaudry to escape. I don't know about Brad."

"I told Brad if he touched him again, I would never speak to him."

"Maybe that will hold him hitched, then. Anyhow, I'm not going to make the young fellow trouble. I'd rather let sleeping dogs lie."

Beulah pressed her arm against his. "I have n't been fair to you, dad. I might have known you would do right."

"I aim to stay friends with my little girl no matter what happens. Yore mother gave you into my hands when she was dying and I promised to be mother and father to you. Yore own father was my brother Anse. He died before you were born. I 've been the only dad you ever had, and I reckon you know you 've been more to me than any of my own boys."

"You should n't say that," she corrected quickly. "I'm a girl, and, of course, you spoil me more. That's all."

She gave him a ferocious little hug and went quickly into the house. Happiness had swept